Terrorism crackdown may have spurred Brussels attacks

Washington Post

BRUSSELS - The four men, two of them brothers, who turned ordinary morning commutes in Brussels into blood-soaked nightmares may have been spurred into action by fears that authorities were closing in on them, according to a note left by one of the attackers that was described by a prosecutor Wednesday.

Days before the Tuesday attacks, counterterrorism police had raided their Brussels safe houses. An ally who took part in November's Paris carnage was shot and captured by authorities.

And one who escaped, Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, a 29-year-old Belgian with a thick rap sheet, wrote that he did not want to wind up in a prison cell, Belgian federal prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw said Wednesday.

The men - at least two of whom had direct ties to the Islamic State attacks in Paris - knew they had to act decisively. So they set out with explosives that ripped open a Brussels subway car and shattered the city's main airport terminal, killing at least 31 people and injuring 300 in the bloodiest attack in Belgium since World War II.

Bakraoui detonated a suitcase full of nails, screws and powerful explosives at the airport, killing himself in the process, Van Leeuw said. So did Islamic State bombmaker Najim Laachraoui, 24, who is also believed to have prepared explosives for the Paris attacks, according to an Arab intelligence official and a European intelligence official.

An unidentified man who left an even larger suitcase of explosives at the airport is believed to still be at large. That suitcase did not immediately detonate, sparing Belgium even more casualties.

Bakraoui's missive, contained in a computer that had been chucked into a garbage can near his Brussels apartment, does not specifically cite recent raids across Belgium as the reason for Tuesday's attacks. But its tone suggests a sense that the noose was tightening.

The message also gives insight into the organization and motivation of militants who apparently turned their attention to Brussels after pulling off the Paris attacks that killed 130 people.

In the note, Bakraoui described feeling pressure bearing down. He wrote that he was 'in a hurry, no longer knowing what to do, being searched for everywhere, no longer secure,” according to Van Leeuw's description of the message, which was not made public.

Bakraoui's younger brother, Khalid el-Bakraoui, 27, is believed to have been the suicide bomber on a Brussels subway car that blew up as it sped out of a station underneath the heart of the European Union quarter of Brussels, an area packed with embassies and international organizations. That attack came 73 minutes after the one at the airport, meaning that commuters were already reading the news of the first explosions when the carnage reached them.

Both Bakraoui brothers had served prison time for violent crime, the European security official said. The announcement Wednesday that two of the attackers were brothers highlighted another emerging tactic from the militant group: They would be the third pair of brothers involved in an Islamic State attack in Europe in the past 15 months.

Laachraoui's involvement draws the boldest line yet between the Paris attacks and those in Brussels.

His DNA was found on explosives in the Paris attacks, and authorities believe that he was versed in the Islamic State art of assembling powerful explosives from readily available ingredients.

His participation in two attacks suggests that the Islamic State is increasingly able to strike on European soil - although his death may also mean he feared imminent capture.

Terrorism experts regard bombmakers, especially those trained in handling sensitive explosives, as among the most valuable and protected members of a terrorist organization. It is unusual for them to participate in suicide attacks themselves.